[Last Day to enter GAs] Do you suffer from a Mental Illness? Let's talk about it!

The National Institute of Mental Health would disagree with you...

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml

I do however appreciate you coming here with links to back up your claim. And I'm sorry to use this argument because it pisses me off when my girlfriend uses it against me. "My links are more reputable". Yours seems like its initially about one person stating his opinion then a follow-up open forum/discussion. To where as mine this is what the government defines each.

More like 0.5:1 no:yes.
Everyone knows gamers are only doing it to escape.

Studies show that around a third of the population will experience (or have experienced) a depressive episode during their lifetime. So I guess .5 to 1 might be a wee high, but still possible.

The good thing about SNRIs is that they are supposed to be better tolerated than older generations of antidepressants.

also I assume all of this is under medical supervision, but consult with your doctor if you're taking benzodiazepines daily for long periods of time, and also if you were to stop the treatment.

Cymbalta, and I think they started me on a pretty low dose.

Cymbalta, I think 20mg.

The main reason of our decadence is our ability to go back to the past and retrieve memories. The same ability that we use to go to "the future", and think what could go wrong. We get stuck there, in the past, in the future, and this makes us get lost in the present. The sad part is, all this time we have lost, the time we are losing right now, and all the time you'll lose tomorrow. And then comes regret. It's all a perfect circle.

Yes, I do take insomnia medicine. It's becoming less of an issue.

I totally understand that. I have a fear of talking to anyone socially outside of my trusted group, but when I do have to confront people, I usually put on a front at first. A lot of people do though. Its human condition to want to be loved or accepted :)

i'm pretty sure i have at last 3 psicological disorders, i just don't like going to the doctor.

I think mental health in general is still in its infancy and insurance companies are more of a business than helping out people. I live in the UK and the public mental health care sector here is still in its infancy (i suppose i can be corrected here as i may have had just general bad luck) but the private part is available and expensive as usual. In my case i had to end up going to a private one which my insurance doesn't cover but that was a conscious decision to either be depressed and repress my emotions or go to someone more qualified at dealing with this (a weird thing since all of us should know ourselves best , rather one of life's little ironies i imagine).

Have faith in yourself, and look around at people who would miss you if you have suicidal thoughts, that helped me stave off a lot of negative emotions and kept me from crossing a line. As for the mind i don't ever think that thoughts will disappear , over riding the negative ones with positive ones is the hard work which i do everyday, in time i believe the mind will master it but for now its an accomplishment that im grateful for.

Best of luck to you mate.

Thanks. We try to keep up with it, try to make sure that my mom don't get any issue that may trigger those symptoms.

yeah ive been going to difrent ones since i was a kid, i've been on medication since i was 5 yo, tho my psych is 600km away so i only got a time every year or every two years

I could but a several people that are way smarter than me have already done it xD

I usually wouldn't talk about these subject cause I don't wanna hurt anybodies sensibility but it looks like I may have done it already...

Well this subject is more common in other countries outside the US and is also really technical but I'll try. Mental health and mental illness are terms that come from psychiatry wich comes from psychoanalysis, both turned out to be really outdated and even dangerous.

Psychoanalysis is totally un-cientific and therefore unreliable, besides being absurd. Just like you are not likely to take experimental drugs or homemade receipts when having a specific pain, you shouldn't trust your psychological development and well being to a guy that is giving you a "prescription" based on his insight and personal experience. This last paragraph is only about psychoanalysis

Psychiatry is based on biology's understanding of human nervous system wich is VERY limited, their treatments are based on drugs (thankfully they don't do lobotomies and all that old stuff anymore) and they are fighting am "illness" they really don't know what it is or what is causing it. What they use to diagnose a person is the DCMV wich contains terms that refer to wide range and really often vague conditions and behaviors, to the point it may say things like "the person appears distracted" and those are the kinds of things I call absurd. This may be subjected to personal opinion but would you trust a diagnose based on what someone kinda thinks you may be doing or thinking? basically I wouldn't trust my life to an unreliable and subjective opinion.

I'm sorry Doeetright, (and no I am not offended), but also don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to sound like I was trivializing what you are going through at all,
maybe I might not know so much, but I do know one thing for sure is that if you FEEL something, it IS as real as anything else, who am I to judge others' pains, since how could I ever tap into their stream of senses?. impossible. even nightmares: just because they didn't happen, doesn't mean you weren't physically and emotionally effected by them. so if a mere dream can do it, how much more so can real life be a living nightmare for some, one that (seemingly) doesn't end.
but what I meant is, regardless of what labels (and the accompanying stigma that goes with that which is typical in society) I wouldn't want anyone to feel marginalized as JUST some mentally ill person, and in turn, not given the same respect or dignity that every human being deserves.
I'd say it would be abnormal to find someone who hasn't experienced at least one of these conditions (and that they should not be ashamed in the least.)
so you probably can imagine how companies exploit this fear of being emotional in society, perpetuating the notion that we're just meant to be non-feeling, professional, straight faced, worker robots, needing the continual supply of magic pills to maintain the facade of fitting in. (but yeah, some do really NEED it and I hope nobody gets the idea to try and just "think positive" and go off the meds suddenly. please never do that)

Oops, I mislabeled Schizophrenia: it's a Personality Disorder, because it's considered genetic and non-treatable. Apologies. :X
Edit: (Though apparently that's not my fault- reading up on it, apparently people aren't certain if it's genetic or not, so some individuals consider it an illness, since it does onset later on, rather than being a verifiable consistent cognitive variation. =O)

But otherwise, yes, I found a source:

Personality disorders are described in the International Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders (ICD-10) as ‘deeply ingrained and enduring behaviour patterns, manifesting themselves as inflexible responses to a broad range of personal and social situations’; they represent ‘either extreme or significant deviations from the way the average individual in a given culture perceives, thinks, feels, and particularly relates to others’ and are ‘developmental conditions, which appear in childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood’ (World Health Organization, 1992a). They are distinguished from mental illness by their enduring, potentially lifelong nature and by the assumption that they represent extremes of normal variation rather than a morbid process of some kind.

While that doesn't directly address the entire category of Mental Disorders (Personality Disorders are a subset of Mental Disorders), it does define mental illness in relation to disorders.

Also, from what I found elsewhere, apparently the difference in terminology was emphasized back in the 50s and had strong supporters till about 2012, but the two terms [while distinct in meaning] have come to be typically interchanged in usage.

In fact, the same article I linked above notes:

The World Health Organization has always avoided defining ‘ disease’, ‘illness’ or ‘disorder’, and in its current (ICD-10) classification of mental and behavioural disorders (which includes personality disorders) it simply states that ‘the term disorder is used throughout the classification,so as to avoid even greater problems inherent in the use of terms such as disease and illness. Disorder is not an exact term, but it is used here to imply the existence of a clinically recognisable set of symptoms or behaviour associated in most cases with distress and with interference with personal functions’

So while the meaning is distinct [and can still be rather crucial for psychiatric admission, as the article I linked details (since you can't be admitted for a disorder, only an illness)], it's no longer a very well supported distinction.

Rather, the current accepted format is to use "disorder" and avoid "illness" altogether, when speaking in general terms (since the current assumption is that the nuance

There still doesn't seem to be any negative connotation to either term, that I could find.

You're welcome to take what I wrote literally, or as a joke.
Either way works. ;)

Call yourself stupid whenever you start thinking "It's not going to get better".

A little trick I used to do that helped alot surprisingly. Mind you I may have a smidgen of self-loathing in me. ^^

Wish you luck on your journey.

Post below is for you too!

I avoid elevators as much as possible, heh. I live in an apartment on the 6th floor and I take the stairs if there is someone at the elevator. I just say "Hello" and go up those stairs like something was chasing me. If they ask, I say I'm just staying in shape xD